Thales is pleased to announce that the EC635 helicopter Full Flight Mission Simulator (FFMS) delivered to the Swiss Air Force has achieved JAR FSTD-H* Level D certification issued by Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA).

The Thales simulator, which is in service at Emmen Air Base, Switzerland, has therefore achieved the highest possible level of FSTD certification. Used to train EC635 helicopter aircrews, this latest-generation simulator meets the Swiss Air Force's specific pilot instruction and training requirements, improves operational effectiveness, raises levels of crew and operator safety and reduces environmental impacts.

The Thales simulator offers an extended range of capabilities, from ab-initio to tactical training, and allows pilots to train for emergency situations and more than 280 different types of equipment failures. It can be used to train aircrews for a broad array of missions including cargo and personnel transport, search and rescue and forest firefighting. Pilots train under highly realistic flight conditions in varied natural settings, including mountain regions. The simulator can reproduce whiteout and brownout situations, terrain-induced turbulence, very low-level flight and complex landing approach profiles.

Night flying conditions with or without night vision goggles can be realistically simulated. The simulator software also incorporates Thales's computer-generated forces application to simulate a broad range of tactical environments.

The projection system offers a field of view of 240 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically. The ThalesView image generation software and associated database enable pilots to train with realistic views of any area in Europe. The whole of Switzerland can be reproduced extremely realistically from a high-resolution aerial imagery database containing details of buildings, roads, power lines and other structures for the entire country.

The EC635 simulator can be coupled to the AS532 Super Puma/Cougar simulator in service with the Swiss Air Force, also developed by Thales, providing pilots with unlimited scope for training exercises involving formation flying and tactical operations.

"This latest-generation simulator, which is now certified to the highest possible level, supports the training of Swiss Air Force EC635 helicopter pilots, offering them an extended array of state-of-the-art and highly realistic training capabilities."
Jean-Jacques Guittard, Vice President for Thales's Training & Simulation business

Thales has delivered more than 110 helicopter simulators to customers in 25 countries around the world.